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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow Me." So he arose and followed Him.

Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" When Jesus heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice. ' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?" And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

- Matthew 9:9-17

In yesterday's reading, we read of Jesus healing a paralytic, whose friends had brought him to Jesus. This is now in Capernaum, the headquarters of His Galilean ministry. Some of the scribes said within themselves that Jesus blasphemed, when He told the paralytic that his sins were forgiven. But Jesus addressed their thoughts openly. He said, "But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins" -- then He said to the paralytic, "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." The people all marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.

As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow Me." So he arose and followed Him. Matthew is also called Levi. My study bible explains: "Roman overloards assigned specific areas to Jewish tax collectors, who were free to collect extra revenues for their own profit. Their collaboration with Gentiles, and their fraud and corruption, caused other Jews to hate the tax collectors and consider them unclean. Jesus, with power to forgive and undo all offenses, calls to this tax collector, follow Me." So, given the setting, our first consideration becomes of these words, "Follow Me." How do they represent our own spiritual journey into deepening faith? How do we "follow Him" as we increasingly give more of ourselves to His transforming influence in our lives? We also know that by now Jesus is a hugely popular preacher and healer -- so it is not surprising that Matthew may respond to His call.

Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. Jesus' call is widely distributed, to "many tax collectors and sinners." Many respond to the call. My study bible notes that Jesus' followers are not troubled later at seeing a tax collector entering into the company of His disciples, because Jesus dines with Matthew and other sinners. Discipleship means learning by example, by living with the Teacher: Jesus teaches by what He does, where He goes, how He lives. He calls all to Himself, all to repentance. There are no exceptions.

And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" When Jesus heard that, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice. ' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." My study bible points out that "I desire mercy and not sacrifice does not mean that Jesus rejects the sacrifices of the temple, but that His priority is mercy -- the forgiving love of God in action." Jesus is quoting from Scripture with which the Pharisees must be familiar: Hosea 6:6 reads "For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." In Psalm 51, which the Church has always used for repentance, we read: "For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise." Jesus' defense of His actions is just that He goes where the need for the physician is greatest. So, Matthew the tax collector gives us in his gospel an expansion on what we understand healing to be. Jesus is the physician for every single part of ourselves, everything that ails us. In yesterday's reading, He healed a paralytic through the faith of his friends. In today's, a spiritual paralysis, if you will, is healed -- and for many.

Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?" And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. Jesus reveals Himself as Messiah to these disciples of John the Baptist. For Jewish tradition, it is the awaited Messiah who is the Bridegroom of Israel, the people of God. Fasting was regularly practiced on Monday and Thursday, says my study bible. Public fasts were also observed, especially on the Day of Atonement and in times of mourning. So, this day, however, the day of the Messiah, is a day of wedding feast, not mourning. Coupled with the healing of the sinners at the table of Christ, and its indication of repentance (or "change of mind" in the Greek), we have a wedding feast. It's a time of healing, reconciliation, celebration in the wedding of the Bridegroom with His Bride. Atonement, in this view, becomes repentance and reconciliation -- not payment, but mercy. The "day" of this Judge becomes a marker for "love in action" and what He asks of us. Fasting, however, will come later, when we await the Bridegroom's return. As my study bible puts it, by fasting in future His disciples will "prepare themselves for the Wedding Feast of the Lamb."

"No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved." We must remember the importance of the presence of wine to a wedding -- and that a wedding is a covenant. Here, my study bible says, Jesus is referring to the Old Covenant, "viewed as imperfect and temporary." The new wineskins are therefore the New Covenant with Christ. It says, "Wine represents the spirit and energy devoted to a covenant; the new wine of the New Covenant is the Holy Spirit dwelling within renewed men, the inauguration of the long-awaited Kingdom." This New Covenant must be big enough, must be suitable, for all -- sinners and Gentiles included, "for the life of the world." It can't fit into the old but needs a new holder, it can't be contained in the old but needs room to grow and expand.

Wine, it seems to me, can also be seen as "every word that comes from the mouth of God." Its energy, as sacrament, is part of the Living Word. And, in this, as my study bible has pointed out, is the living work of the Holy Spirit among us, that which creates relationship on all levels, fills us with grace, makes all things possible. No wonder we need "unshrunk cloth" and "new wineskins" to contain this New Covenant opening up for us all. So, let me ask you today, how do you see this wedding feast? What does the Bridegroom's place mean to you -- and what is it to watch and prepare for this wedding feast? Can we "follow Him" as do Matthew and other sinners of his time? Do we understand what it is to "change our minds" -- to allow this grace, this energy, to be at work within us and in our lives? Can we get our minds around that? To be healed, it seems to me Jesus is saying, is to practice discipleship. It is one and the same, and there is no other way. How do you prepare and wait for the wedding feast? How do you expand your own old understanding with the new that will fill us with good things?

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